This coming Friday night, there's
going to be some work done here at the building. Cleaning, preparing
for the conference, I reckon. And then we'll set a Saturday
later. But some wants to do it on Friday
evening, they say, then that's fine. I mean, you know, do it
when you can. But last time I've dealt with Job
here, it was about Job's view of God. And Job has a very, very
high view of God. And he knew that God was a just
God, and that God was the only one that could justify him. and
that God would never cast away a perfect man. And then he asked,
how in the world can a God who is holy, just, and righteous
take a man and justify him and make him perfect? And God is
so powerful that he said he makes the mountains. And nobody can,
he says there in verse two of chapter nine, if he contend with
him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. God contends with
a man, he ain't got one thing he can say. Can't come up with
nothing. But now I wanna go down and start
reading in verse four and go all the way to the end of the
chapter and make some comments and then bring the message. God, he's wise in heart and mighty
in strength, who hath hardened himself against thee and hath
proffered. He removes the mountains, and
they know not, which overturneth them in his anger, which shaketh
the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble,
which commandeth the sun, and it rises not, and sealeth up
the stars. This is the way God, this is
Job subscribing God, which commanded the sun, and it rises not, and
seals up the stars, which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and
treadeth upon the waves of the sea. These are some of the constellations,
which maketh Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of
the south, which doeth great things past finding out, yea,
and wonders without number. Oh, what a God. Wonders without
number. You look up in the heavens and
you see all those stars. You see all those things. He
brings him out of his chambers. And lo, he goes by me, and I
see him not. He can even come whereby I am
and go right by me, and I can't see him. He passes on also, but
I perceive him not. And behold, he'll take away.
Who can hinder him? Who can stay God's hand? Who
can hinder God from doing anything whatsoever? He will say unto
him, what are you doing? Who would dare say unto God Almighty,
what are you doing? What do you think you're doing?
Now you can say that to me. I can say that to you. We can
say that to a lot of people, but we can't say that to God.
If God will not withdraw his anger, The proud helpers, you
know what he says? He said, he'll make them to stoop.
He said, I'll make them to bow down. Make them to bow down in
my anger. And how much less shall I answer
him? I got nothing I can say. And
choose out words to reason with him. How would you reason with
God? What kind of words would I use
to reason with God? Whom though I were righteous,
yet would I not answer? But I would make supplication
to my judge, he's my judge, and I'd pray to him, and I'd supplicate
him, and I'd ask of him. If I had called and he had answered
me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice?
No, he said, God answers sometimes whether we ask or not. He said,
I don't think God's just going to walk in under my voice because
it's me. That's what he's saying. For he breaketh forth with a
tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He can come right
out of a storm. He can cause you to be wounded.
And you'll say, well, that's without a cause. And that's what
we, that's, you know, God, we don't look for a cause in God.
If you look for a cause for why God does anything, you're wasting
your time. If you look for a reason why
God does anything, he says, he'll multiply my wounds without a
cause. Does God need a reason to do
anything that he does? And he will not suffer me to
take my breath that fills me with bitterness. If he wants
to do that, that's his business. He fills us with bitterness.
If I, and Joe's talking, he's here about God, and he first
started describing God, now here's his view of God. If I speak of
strength, if I talk about my strength, he's the one that's
strong. And if I speak of judgment, who's gonna set me a time to
plead with him? Judgment's set. If I justify myself, if I tell
myself and tell everybody how holy I am, how good I am, how
righteous I am, and how blessed I am. He said, if I justify myself,
my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I'm perfect, it'll prove
me perverse. And what he's saying is, is that
God's gotta be the one to justify us. God's gotta be the one to
make us perfect. And he says, if I'm that way
and talk about it in myself, then I'm perverse. And if I said
I was perfect, I wouldn't even know my own soul. I would despise
my life. This one thing, therefore, I
said, he destroys the perfect and the wicked. God, you know,
he deals with men, brings the cause of the sun, the rain to
go on the righteous and the wicked, the just and the unjust. And
if the scourge shall slay suddenly, he'll laugh at the trial of the
innocent. Cause you know why he said he
laughed at the trial of the innocent? Cause there's no such thing.
No such thing as innocence. The earth is given into the hand
of the wicked, and he covers the face of the judges. Therefore,
if not, where and who is he? God lets the hand of the wicked
rule in the earth. He covers the face of the judges
that could condemn them and judge them. And he said, if he didn't
do it, who did it? And where is the person who did
it? Now my days are swifter than a post. They flee away, they
see no good. They are passed away as the swift
ships, as the eagle that hastens to the prey. If I say I'll forget
my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself. I am afraid of all my sorrows.
I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. If I be wicked,
why then labor I in vain? If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in the
ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man
as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together,
In judgment, neither is there any day's man betwixt me that
might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from
me and let not his fear terrify me. Then would I speak and not
fear him, but it is not so with me. I want to deal with those
last 10 verses, 25 through 35. Job is still answering Bildad's
accusation. He called him a hypocrite, called
him a man that thinks he's purer than God himself. And Job, when
he answered him, he showed that the creation and the creature
alike are alike as far as the eternal sovereign God is concerned. You know, God is sovereign and
He's eternally sovereign. And when God looks at men, He
looks at men and He sees them either in Christ or out of Christ.
But here's Job, he's a man who has been put in a terrible, terrible,
terrible predicament. But all the creation and the
creature alike are in the sovereign hands of God Almighty. And God
can exalt a man or He can humble a man. He can bring a man to
great greatness and glory, or He can bring him down low, and
He can bring shame to him, and He can do that to whom He will.
Just because a man is righteous does not mean that God won't
lay His hand heavy on him. And a lot of people, God never
puts His hand on them, and He won't do it until the day of
judgment. They'll never know They have great blessings and
enjoy life immensely, and they won't know anything until they
face God in judgment. And then there's people that
go through great, great, great trials, go through great darkness,
go through great afflictions, and yet they're God's elect people. God's elect people. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is a perfect example of that. He's God's elect, God's
blessed son, who suffered like he did. Job was a perfect and
upright man who suffered like Job did. Paul was an apostle and he was
delivered to death, put in prison, left in the water for three days
and three nights floating on a board, beaten three times,
beaten three times with 39 stripes, put in stocks He was attacked
by a bunch of people and they beat him and they walked off
and left him for dead. And God raised him back up. He
was one of God's people. So I, you know, and that's what
Job is saying here. And whatever God does, he's gonna
be right, ever how he deals with us. And in these 10 verses, Job
seems to be addressing God. He has spoken about God, in God's
power, in God's glory. Nobody can contend with him. He's got power over all the creation. He raises up the mountains, put
the stars, put all the Orion and Arcticus and Pleiades in
the heavens. Shakes the pillars of the earth.
And all these earthquakes and things. And now he's speaking
about him, and now he's speaking to him. Spoke about him, now
he said, I'm gonna speak to God. gonna speak to him. And this
is what he says in verse 25. Now my days are swifter than
a post, they flee away, they see no good. They are passed
away as the swift ships and as the eagle that hasteth to the
prey. Job talks about the swiftness
and suffering of life. He talks about the swiftness
of life. And he uses three things to describe how quickly and how
swiftly life goes by. He describes a post. He describes
swift ships. And he describes an eagle that
sees its prey. And those things are very, very
quick, very fast. And when he talks about a post,
that's a courier. Somebody, a runner, that's got
a message. And you know, they used to have
the pony express. That's the first way they started
getting mail from one place to another in America, where people
would carry them on a ponies and ride and jump off and keep
on going. And he's what he says, swifter than a post. Somebody
rushes, gets on a camel and flies or runs and brings a message
to somebody. That's what they did to David
when David was waiting to hear about Absalom. A man went running
to him and said, what about my son? He said, I don't know. He
just wanted to run. And then the other one come along
with a message. And I tell you what, and then
they talked about swift ships, light ships that's in full sail. And when the wind catches them,
they just fly over the water. And then he used as an illustration
the swiftness of life, an eagle, not just flying over, but in
swiftness, swooping down and catching his prey. And I know
all of us at one time or another, ever on television or somewhere,
seen a big eagle or a hawk come down and just catch something.
I've seen them come down and just slash a snake right off
the ground. They come by so fast. I've seen
them come by and grab a bird right out of a bird feeder. And
sure as I was watching the other day and a bald eagle, a bald
eagle. His head was almost white, he
wasn't full grown yet. But right across from the lake
from us he had caught him a great old big fish. Big old bird, I
mean he was, he stood that tall. He had that bird, that pearl
in his hands. He wasn't going to let go of
it, wasn't going to let go of it. But he's talking about the
swiftness of life. And how many sermons, how many
sermons, how many verses of scripture talked about us and the swiftness
of life? He called it as a weaver's shuttle. My life is as the breadth of
a hand. That's the breadth of a hand. He said, Lord, make me
to know the end of my days. And oh, how many sermons, how
many conversations have there been on the brevity and the swiftness
of life. James asked this, this, what
is your life? He said, tell me what your life
is. He said, it's a vapor. It's a vapor. It appears and
then vanishes away. And oh my. And all the figures
that Job gives here, they're wonderful, and yet they don't
tell the whole story about how fast and how brief life is. The post, when he's running to
bring a message, he can stop and rest. He says, you know,
I'm going to rest. I need to rest for a little while
to carry on my post. He can sit down and rest. He
can even spend the night somewhere if he wants to. And the ship,
no matter how swift it is, he may drop anchor someplace. And
if the wind ceases to blow, he can't go anywhere. Can't go anywhere. And the eagle may just swig around
in the sky and not see any prey and be distracted. But oh my! But there's never, never a pause
in life. There's no pause button in life. There's no push button, let's
pause this thing for a little while. I need to pause my life. I need to check out for just
a few minutes. There's no pause button in life. There's no rewind button. I want
to go back. I'd like to just go back an hour.
I'd like to go back a day. I'd like to go back a year. But
there's no pause button. It just goes on and on and on. And from the day, from the progress
that we go through from the cradle to the day we're born to the
grave, it's constant. It's constant. And it's swift. And you know it gets swifter
and swifter and swifter and swifter. It goes by so fast. I remember these children in
here when they was born. I remember when you was a little
girl. You was a little girl. And now, Oh my, but all I tell you, life
is constant and it just keeps on going, it keeps on going,
keeps on going, it gets swifter and swifter and swifter. Whether
you're at home, whether you live someplace else, whether you're
awake or whether you're asleep, whether you got a business and
doing business, or whether you're having fun in life. Life goes on. It never, like
a ship, it don't never drop anchor. It never slows down. It just
gets swifter and swifter and swifter and swifter. Until one
day, we get to get so fast that we're the end of it. And how'd
I get here so quick? How'd I get here so quick? How'd
I get here so quick? I read a story about a cruel,
cruel man. He was a despot. He was a cruel
man who ruled with an iron fist. And he created a cell, created
a cell for the people that he put in prison. And when they
first entered it, it was comfortable. Oh, it was comfortable. It was
nice, really nice. But it gradually, gradually,
Got darker and got darker, and then it started, the wall started
closing in, and it kept coming in and coming in. It started
out comfortable, but it just come in by degrees, by degrees,
and it crushed the prisoner to death. And that's the way life
is. It starts out full of light and
promises, and it gets narrower and narrower and narrower until
one day there's none of it left. Huh? You say, that's morose. No, it ain't. That's just the
way, that's it. That's the way it is. Oh my. And then look what he
said over here. He says, my days, my days flee
away. He says that in verse 25. My
days flee, they flee away. They flee away and they see no
good. What's he saying? He said, they
go by so fast, and so many changes go through our life, that sometimes
we can't even stop to see the good in it. You hear people say
all the time, stop and smell the roses. Well, if life was
full of roses, I wouldn't do that. But this is what he's saying,
my life, I can't even go by so quick that, I know the misery
that's in it, but I find it hard to see all the goodness in it.
And they go so fast. that I can't see well enough
to see all the good, but let me tell you something. Life may be swift here, life
may go on fast here, but I'll tell you something about heaven.
It starts brand new there, and it never, it never changes there. I was thinking of that hymn today.
I surely looked it up. I think I can find it. Let's
see if I can find it here real quick and then just make a mention
of it. Oh yes, abide with me, past falls
the evening tide. Hold thy word before my closing
eyes, shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's
morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee, and life and death,
O Lord, abide with me. Then here's the one that I was
talking about, swept to its close ebbs out life's little day. Earth joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay all around I
see. Oh thou who changes not. Oh Lord, abide with me. Abide
with me. Oh, I tell you what. Stay with me, Lord. And I'll
tell you something. You're gonna stay with us right
to the very end. In fact, he says when we get
to the end, he'll go come get us and take us where he is so
we can be with him. So let this fast go on. Oh my. And you know, this is
a fact. Life is so swift that we never
use all the powers that God's given us. Never use all the powers
that God gives us. We never, never fulfill all our
plans. Never fill them, fulfill them. And I tell you what, we never
fulfill our life, all our promises, all our plans, all our hopes,
and everything about it. And when you think you got it
about done, then it's over. Then it's over. This is one of my sayings, and
I'm going to say it till I die, if I got my mind. People worry about what's going
to happen tomorrow and what they're going to do. And you know, we
got things that you get up and you say, well, I'd like to get
this done today. I'd like to get that done today. Shirley
and I's got work to do tomorrow. We got things we got to try,
by God's grace, to get done. But this is, I believe, this
is all in my heart. If what you don't get done today, and if
you don't get anything done, it'll keep till tomorrow. It'll
be right there waiting on you. Ain't that right? Yeah, it'll
wait on you. And let me tell you something,
every man, every one of us is gonna leave something unfinished
in our life. A word unsaid, a prayer unprayed,
a kind word unsaid, an encouragement given, a forgiveness asked, we're
all gonna leave this life And we're going to leave it unfinished,
something unfinished about it. What is your life? What is your
purpose? Oh my. Well, and what your life
is, is what you pursue. A fellow wrote me a little note
yesterday, and I've got to answer him in a way. He said, Brother
Don, I hope God's still number one in your life. I've got to answer him and I'm
not going to lie to him, I'm going to call him. God's not
number one in my life, God is my life. What is your life? Christ is my life. What is your
life? God's my life. What is my life? The church is my life. What is
my life? My brothers and sisters in Christ
is my life. I've got no life apart from this.
And that's what we're talking about. Oh, and then this idea
of time slipping away, it frightens some people totally to death.
But other people, they say, come on, come on, come on. I'm closer to home than ever
has. Oh my. So that's how he's talking about
how swift life is. Now look what he talks about
suffering. We go through this life, it's swift. And there's
lots of suffering in this life. And he says in verse 27, he says
this, he said, if I say I will forget my complaint, now he's
going to say this is some things that I'm going to do. These are
some of my intentions, what he's talking about. He said, if I
say I'm going to forget complaining, I'm just not going to complain.
I'm going to forget my complaint. I'm going to leave off the heaviness
that I feel. I'm going to just quit feeling
heavy. I'm not going to let this burden stay on me like that.
I'm going to let it go. And I'm going to comfort myself. And what he's saying is, I can't
stop. I do not have, I say I'll do
these things. He said, if I say, I say, I'm
gonna relieve them by my own efforts. You say, well, I'm gonna
get rid of this burden. I'm gonna comfort myself. I'm
gonna not make a complaint anymore. Job said, I'm gonna stop that.
I'm gonna quit it. He said, if I say it, but he
says, I can't. I don't have the power to do
that. If you've got the power to take a burden off yourself,
if you've got the power to comfort yourself, if you've got the power
to say I'm not, I'm never going to, forget my complaint. If I
say, now I'll tell you this claimant theology, Job, just claim it. Just claim that you're not gonna
be heavy anymore. Just claim it, Job, that you're
gonna quit complaining. Just claim it. Well, that claimant
theology wouldn't have worked on Job. No, no. And then look
what he says, nextly. He said, I'm afraid, in verse
28, I'm afraid of all my sorrows. Oh my, I'm afraid of all my sorrows. I'm afraid of my sorrows. I'm
afraid that sorrow is going to overwhelm me. That's what he
said. I'm afraid that my sorrow is going to overwhelm me. Now our Lord, He said He's sorrowed
even unto death. He's a man of sorrows and He
was acquainted with grief. And a dear brother, dear brother, he said, you know, he said, you, you never, you thought you knew
what sorrow was. You thought you knew what sorrow
was until God brought sorrow. Till God took the night out.
Till God took away the things that, said, oh, I'm afraid of
my sorrows. I'm afraid they're going to overwhelm
me. And then look what he says, and I know that that will not
hold me innocent. You know why I said I know you'll
not hold me innocent? Because I'm not. I'm not innocent. And that's one thing that God's
people do that nobody else does. They understand that we're not
victims. We're not victims. We're not
victims. Christ wasn't a victim. You know
what we do, we do because we are what we are. And I'm not
going to justify myself in any way. I'm not going to, whatever.
When I do something, when I'm guilty, you got to say, I'm guilty.
And that's what we say. If it hadn't been for Christ,
we're the ones with the sin. Christ is the one that put it
away. We was the ones that was guilty. He's the one that took
the guilt away. But we own up to what we are.
And we talk about our weaknesses and our failure. And I tell you,
sometimes you say, I'm afraid of sorrow. I've had enough sorrow. Oh Lord, I'm afraid of having
any more. I don't know if I can bear any
more of it. Then I know that you won't hold
me innocent, Lord, no matter what I'm trying to do. And he
said, I'm trying to loosen the cords of my sorrow. And the more
I try to loosen the cords of my sorrow, the tighter they get.
The tighter they get. And look what he says in verse
29. Look what he says, now listen,
listen to this. If I be wicked, if I'm like these
men say I am, if I'm like Bildad and Eliphaz says that I am, if
I be wicked and I'm gonna die lost and I don't have any hope
whatsoever, what in the world do I labor then? Why do I labor
if I be wicked? Why do I labor in Christ? Why do I labor in this life?
Why do I call on God? Why do I look to God? Why do
I trust God? Why do I say He's a just God
and a Savior? And that's what Job said about
Him. Job said He's got all the power to create. He holds up
the pillars of the earth. And oh my. And I tell you what. One place
I don't want to be wicked. I know I've got plenty of meanness
and corruptness and hypocrisy and self-righteousness and pride
in me, but oh my, if we ain't got God, and if we
were, what would be the use of following Christ And find out
at the end of the day, we was wicked. When our Lord said, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. And that's one thing that I don't
want to miss Christ. I don't want to miss Christ.
I miss a lot of things in this world. I miss, I heard a fellow
say that, I can miss an arm. I can lose an arm, I can miss
an arm. But I don't wanna miss Christ.
I can miss a leg, but I don't want to miss Christ. Ah, got to know Christ. I don't
want my labor to be in vain. I don't want the things that
I say, and you don't either. You want the things you say in
your life to just come out to be nothing but useless when you
get to the end of the way. Huh? Oh, my. Now, listen. And then look what
he goes on down here and says now. If I wash myself, verse
30, if I wash myself with snow water, oh, where that snow first
falls, and you know, back in them days, they didn't have cars
and all that, and didn't make, turn into slush, and didn't turn
black the way it does around here. And I tell you what, when
it snowed there, just snow white. Beautiful. And he said, if I
take that snow water with all its whiteness, and all of its
purity, and it come down from heaven, and I take that snow
water and wash my hands with it, that pure snow water, and
I make my hands all so clean, so clean, look what he said, I still wouldn't
be pure before you. Oh my, you know what, he was
reading in Jeremiah tonight, but Jeremiah says this, he said,
if I worked with mitre, if I worked with mitre, if I worked with
a Something he called that purifies
things and cleans things. He said, my hands still wouldn't
be clean. And no matter what a person does
to wash their hands. Look at that pretty white snow.
I'm going to reach and give him a handful. I'm going to wash
my hands with it. He said, my hands still would not be pure.
Still wouldn't be pure. And I wouldn't be pure before
you. And then look what he says. And he says, yet, shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch. About the time I think I'm all
right, you plunge me in the ditch. I've got good and clean. I've
got all cleaned up here. I've got good and clean. You
plunge me down in the ditch. I get dirty. I get dirty. I'm
down in that ditch. And look what he says, and my
clothes are so nasty that my clothes even abhor me. My clothes
look at me and say, oh you, what a sorry thing you are. Oh my. They'll plunge me in the ditch,
my old clothes shall abhor me. They'll make me to be abhorred.
Because I tell you what, the only righteousness, the only
clothes that God will accept is the clothes that he give us.
Huh? I told you about that woman Bruce
gonna deal with her funeral Tuesday, Sarah. And she said and told
him what all she's gonna said, I got my clothes all set aside
for them to put on me. And when they put me in the casket,
and they said, it's my wedding garment. Why you mean wedding garment
if I'm fixed to go to my wedding? You know that our Lord, he made
his wedding for his son. And he invited all these people,
and they come in there, and they all had wedding garments on.
Everybody had to have this grayish wedding garment. And there was
a fella slipped in there, and they said, you're not dressed
right. You don't look like anybody else
in here. What are you doing in here? You ain't got more than
wedding dresses. You ain't got, you're not dressed
for this wedding. And the Lord said, grab him hand
and foot, drag him out of there. Oh my. We're going to a wedding
and you know what it says? We got snow white clothes on. Dressed in white linen. Oh my. She's already going to be with
her master. Going to be with her master.
Oh my, and then I want to look here at the great distance between
God and man. Look what he's talking to God
now, and he's going to talk about God again. He said, for God's
not a man like me. God's not like me. There's people who truly think
that God's like them. God said, you thought all together
I was one like unto you. You thought I was just like you,
but I'm not. I'm not like you. God said, God's
not a man. God's not a man like me. That
I can answer him like I would a man. And God's not a man that
him and I could come together in judgment. That I could come
and me and God sit down and me and him could come in judgment
together. And you say, well, people don't
do that. Let me show you something in Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter 9. Oh my. That's why Job said, Behold,
he taketh away who can hinder him, who will say unto him, What
are you doing? And oh my, there's no authority
above God. And God's judgment's final. But
look what he said here, Romans 9, in verse 19. You know, Paul,
the apostle said that he'll have mercy on whom he'll have mercy
and whom he will, he'll harden. And that will say then unto me,
he said, when I talk about God this way and describe God, then
you'll turn around and say unto me, why doeth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, oh, but oh man, Who art thou that replies and argues
with God Almighty? Who are you to think you are
to reply against God? You don't like that he'll have
mercy on whom he will? You don't like that he'll harden
whose he will? Since he can do what he wants to, how can he
judge me? Because who can resist his will?
And I'll tell you what, and then he goes on to say, shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made
me like this? Why'd you make me this way? Why'd
you harden me? Why'd you make me a vessel of
dishonor? Why'd you make me an ice tray? Why'd you make me a
sorry man? Oh, shall the thing form say
to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump, and that's what
we are, the whole human race, one lump, the same lump, in Adam,
and he takes out of that lump, he'll make one vessel under honor,
and another under dishonor. And it's his clay, he's the potter,
and we're the clay. And he'd make us the way, that's
what Job said. He said, God's not like me, and
I cannot come and do like they said. Oh, I'm gonna argue with
God, huh? And I tell you what, then look
what else he said back over here. And back over in our text now,
back over here in Job 9. Neither, neither is there any
dazeman. You know what that word dazeman
means? It's an umpire that might lay hands upon us both, upon
me and God. An umpire, you know everybody
knows what an umpire is. He's in a baseball game, and
he makes all the calls. Somebody, safe, out. Safe, out. He makes the decisions,
but people go up and argue with him and debate with him. But
Job says, you know, since God's not like me, and I can't, him
and I can't sit down and we can't argue, but I can't come in judgment
with him. He said, there's nobody, there's no umpire between me
and God. There's no one that can laze
in on God and on me. But over in another place, Job
says, there is a lazeman betwixt me and God. And what that means
is, and you know, Job, there is a daysman between us and God.
There's a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's got his hand on
God, and he can reach down and touch us. And he brings, both
of us, he brings God and man together, the Lord Jesus Christ
does. He takes man with all his sadness
and his sin and his shame and his guilt, and he reaches and
gives him and brings Him to God, brings Him to His holiness, and
our God, He reached up there, and He brings God down. He reconciles
us, and brings us together, and makes us one. And I tell you,
He's the only one that can do that. Only one that can do that. And then look what the next thing
He says here. Oh, no dazement, you know. But what Job's talking about
here, about no dazement that lays hands upon us, what he's
saying here is, we need to submit to God's will, and the rest in
His will, and don't get no argument with God, not at all, never,
never, never. And there's people that do it.
They say, oh, God's not fair to do that to me. You hear people
say that all the time. It's not fair that they had to
go through that. It's not fair that they had to suffer like
that. Just not fair. And then look what he said in
verse 34 and 35, and I'll be done. Job believed his sufferings come
from the hand of God. Let him take his rod away from
me. You know what he's saying is, is that what's happened to
me, God did it. God did, he said, let him take
his rod off of me. Take his rod off of me, and let
not his fear terrify me. Oh my, I tell you what, when
he puts his rod on me, he makes me afraid. He makes me afraid
that maybe I don't know him, maybe he's just gonna keep me
in such terrible state. And now what he said, Lord, give
me some relief. Don't contend with me so hard. And then look what he said, verse
35. He said, Lord, if you take your
right away, take the dread away, the terror away. He said, then
I'd speak. What does he mean here? I'd talk
to you. I'd speak to you. And my fear wouldn't be a fear
that would terrify me. I would speak to you as a father
would speak to a son. I wouldn't be afraid of you not
hearing me. But he said, it's not so with myself. And what
he said here, I cannot answer for myself. I can't satisfy you
about my state. So how could I satisfy God? Oh,
life is fast, swift, and lots of heartache and sorrow through
it. And I pray that the Lord, if it wasn't for that days man,
our Lord Jesus Christ, life would certainly, certainly, that he
makes it enjoyable. Our Father, our Father in the
name, glorious, precious, blessed, holy, name that's above every
name, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, I praise you for your
word. Lord, I wished I was better,
would love to be better. Oh Lord, teach me, teach me,
take me in hand and teach me. Take us in hand and teach us
all. Teach us about yourself. And Lord, don't let us ever argue
or complain about you. complain of your way of dealing
with us in this world. Lord, let us, in your wondrous
mercy, kiss the hand of your blessed providence, whatever
it may be, and help us, O Lord, to remember our dear brothers
and sisters who are in great affliction, great heaviness,
heartaches and sorrows, Rick and Helen with all their trials
and all their bodily afflictions, Brother Bruce and others even here in our congregation
whose bodies are so frail, they can't seem to get strength, can't
seem to get encouragement, can't seem to get away from what you've brought them to.
But Lord, we know that in your wondrous sovereign mercy, you'll
raise them up in your time. And Lord, I pray that you would
forgive me and forgive us of everything that's so unlike you,
and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's sing 125. Stand and sing 125, and then
you'll be at liberty to go. 125. We all know that one. Shouldn't
even have to open a book. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me that all in all. Jesus made it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left our crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots, And bared the
heart of stone Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sin had
left a crimson stain He washed in water's smoke This is it For
nothing good have I whereby my voice to claim, I'll wash my
garments white in the blood of Calvary's Lamb. All to Him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed in white as snow. Oh, don't we look forward to
this. And win before the throne. I stand in Him, complete. Jesus died my soul to save, my
lips shall still repeat Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe
Sin has left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. See you Wednesday night. God win. Lord bless you.